Back in February, James Marshall Crotty, penned a piece for The Huffington Post entitled Comparing Trump to Hitler Is Worst Kind of Hate Speech, arguing “we have a very important, if unwritten, rule in high-level policy debate: he or she that resorts to a Nazi Germany or Hitler comparison loses the argument.”
Was that only nine months ago? Isn’t not being “politically correct” something Trump’s supporters love about him? But the rest of the world is supposed to be politically correct?
When you scroll down to the comments, the most recommended comment eviscerates Crotty’s arguments:
John Campbell: I think the writer takes a completely backassward approach to the problem of Trump. The comparison to Trump, and the mob that Trump incites, can be easily found in William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. No one can compare Trump now, to the carnage , and aftermath of the carnage, that Hitler inspired, but the comparison of Trump to Hitler, before that carnage ensued, is a valid comparison.
A history teacher has been placed on paid leave after comparing Trump and Hitler in his lesson plan:
Frank Navarro, who’s taught at the school for 40 years, was asked to leave midday Thursday after a parent sent an email to the school expressing concerns about statements Navarro made in class. Mountain View/Los Altos High School District Superintendent Jeff Harding confirmed the incident Friday but declined to describe the parent’s complaints.
(snip)
Meanwhile Navarro, who also teaches special education, argues his lesson plan was not based on personal opinion, but historical facts. The 65-year-old was named a Mandel Fellow for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1997 and has studied at the International Center for the Study of the Holocaust in Jerusalem. Hitler’s persecution of Jews and rise to power has “remarkable parallels” to Trump’s comments on Latinos, Blacks and Muslims in his own bid for power, he said.
“I said (to school officials), ‘I’m not pulling these facts out of my hat. It’s based on experience and work and if I’m wrong, show we where I’m wrong.’ And there was silence,” he said.
Navarro, who is Mexican-American and was raised in Oakland, said he’s concerned for many of his students during this political climate.
“I’ve had Mexican kids come and say, ‘Hey, Mr. Navarro, I might be deported,'” he said.
“Is it better to see bigotry and say nothing? That’s what the principal was telling me (during our conversation). In my silence, I would be substantiating the bigotry.”
Mountain View High history teacher on leave for comparing Trump to Hitler
As I argued in an earlier diary, Trump Continues Attacks on Media! Fight Back!, our institutions are vulnerable, where I quoted Autocracy: Rules for Survival:
Rule #3: Institutions will not save you. It took Putin a year to take over the Russian media and four years to dismantle its electoral system; the judiciary collapsed unnoticed. The capture of institutions in Turkey has been carried out even faster, by a man once celebrated as the democrat to lead Turkey into the EU. Poland has in less than a year undone half of a quarter century’s accomplishments in building a constitutional democracy.
In Turkey, they are jailing journalists, lawyers, teachers and other members of civil society, so much so that Turkey plans to build dozens of new jails after post-coup crackdown. I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but there certainly has to be a reason that Prison stocks are flying on Trump victory.
There is a change.org petition (Principal David Grissom: Reverse Mr. Navarro's Administrative Leave NOW) that requires 1,838 more signatures to reach 25,000.